The Parkland Twins inaugural season was filled with hard lessons for manager Joe Pasychnyk.

The Twins ended the North Central Alberta Baseball League season with three wins and 18 losses. The Twins struggled throughout May as the team tried to find their rhythm, but in the early days of June they put their first win on the board defeating the Edmonton Athletics 7-4.

Pasychnyk said he was hopeful the team could turn things around after that, but the team struggled through the rest of June and July only getting their second win against the Edmonton Athletics in late July and defeated the Edmonton Primeaus Aug. 7, 4-3.

“At the end of the season we were pretty competitive even with teams that are currently in the playoffs,” said Pasychnyk.

The team finished last in the eight-team league, but Pasychnyk said the club really improved over the course of the season. This improvement was highlighted by the play of catcher Drew Tolles, who led the club offensively.

“Drew Tolles started off slow but towards the end of the year he became our best player offensively, and was a really good catcher for the team,” said Pasychnyk.

Tolles was at-bat 52 times he has 14 hits, 12 runs and two runs batted in. His batting average was 0.269 and he hit two doubles and a triple.

When it came to the team’s strong points Pasychnk said he did not think the team had any areas which did not need heavy improvement. He said the team really struggled both offensively and defensively. He did however say that as the year went on hitting and pitching both improved.

On the defensive side, the Twins’ top pitcher was Josh Fisher who pitched a total of 42 innings and faced 210 batters. He had 36 strike-outs, 45 hits, 38 runs, 29 earned runs and 27 walks. Pasychnk said he hopes to see these numbers improve next year and to accomplish it he plans to change things up a little.

“As of right now I’ll be managing next year, that’s the plan. I’ll definitely surround myself with people who can help next year. This year I did a lot of it on my own and it will definitely be easier without the stress of doing everything,” he said.

One area he said he hopes to change is with practices. This season the team did not have any practices throughout the season and it really showed in how the team played.

“It was an overwhelming amount of work for myself, I was more focused on making sure we had enough guys at our next game.”

The team has already started receiving phone calls from interested players in 2020 and Pasychnk said he is hopeful the team will have a full bench next year so when someone has an off game they have substitutes they can put in. It will also take some pressure off of him, so he can focus more on the team’s performance and less on arm twisting guys out to the game to make sure the Twins can field a team.